ENT: Your goal should be to get healthy

ENT: Your goal should be to get healthy
A recent CBC TV expose on the rising popularity of spinal decompression therapy (promoted by the Low Back Clinic) warns against claims of pain free, low-cost treatment.
If you're in the second half of your life, chances are 50/50 you have back problems. And if you do, chances are 60/40 you're on medication. And if you are, sometimes you get to the point that you'd do anything to be rid of this scourge.
I know all about it. Decades ago, X-rays confirmed three damaged disks in my lumbar area and two more between the shoulder blades. Not good. I won't go into all the debilitating physiological and psychological effects for which lower back pain can be responsible. You already know them.
But chances are, like me, before I undertook my own physical health education, you assume there's not much you can do, nothing short of surgery or some expensive treatment that isn't covered by your health plan. Painkillers and anti-inflamatories seem to be the only answer.
Well, I'm not a doctor, but I can give you the benefit of my experience, at the centre of which is self-education.
Many assumptions about our physical health prevent us from aging gracefully and in good enough condition to remain active. Of these, three are primary:
1.Doctors are the only authority for decisions about one's physical well being.
2.The body, in old age, is on an irreversible downward spiral.
3.Personal intervention in these two conditions is impossible and pointless.
These assumptions are interrelated. Consider that, and add to them the fact human nature inevitably causes us all to lose interest in newly established health regimes, like diets, anywhere from three weeks to three months after initiating them.
In view of this, the goal cannot be, "I want to lose weight," or "I want to be free of back pain." The goal must be, "I want to be healthy."
When I began to assume some of the responsibility for my own health, I had to rethink not only these assumptions, but also the core values I had lived with all my life -- the values that got me into the health problems that plagued me.
This self-education taught me the healing powers of the human body and how it can rejuvenate itself at any age. Last October, I discovered the joys of recovery from lower back pain, which had afflicted me for decades. This resulted from a session with a naturopath who performed spinal traction on my back, and instructed me in daily exercise that would maintain this correction.
Spinal traction creates space between the vertebrae and relieves pressure on the cartilaginous disks between them, giving them a chance to regain their proper shape and function. Simple. The daily exercise, a body stretch performed lying flat on my back in bed before I get up, is also simple. A full spinal traction also works. As I go downstairs, I raise my weight off my feet just for a moment using both banisters as parallel bars.
Since last October, my back problems have been reduced by 95%, and recovery time for those rare occasions when it does flare up, is now three hours (without medication) instead of three days. This doesn't mean my back can now be the subject of abuse again, but it does mean I don't have to absent myself from all those enjoyable life activities I used to fear would bring on nothing but pain and suffering.
That's what this week's "Heads up!" is about. Beware the miracle cure. Educate yourself. In my experience, the results of education allow me to stay on track in my new approach to longevity, and to defy all the cliches and assumptions.
(And remember: never act on journalistic advice without first consulting a professional.)
Bonne chance!
Dan Racicot retired from teaching in Toronto in 1997 and moved back to Sudbury to begin a second career in creative learning styles. In 2003, he opened Mountaintop Enterprises, which focuses on freelance photography, writing and publishing, and the promotion of men's studies.